President Obama's new science team Introducing two of Barack Obama's science advisers: Transporting chimps Australian veterinary nurse Debby Cox was awarded an Order of Australia this Australia Day for her work saving chimpanzees as part of the Jane Goodall Institute. Here she talks about her adventure transporting 10 chimps out of politically unstable Uganda to safety. Early development of babies' brains Until they learn to talk, babies have very few ways of communicating with others except to laugh or cry. Naomi Fowler in London explores the practice of signing with babies, and talks to Dan Grossman from the Centre for Brain and Cognative Development in London on his research that shows social communication may be hardwired from birth. Memory storage in the brain One of the more complex functions of the brain is memory. Scientists know that nerve cells in the brain and body communicate information via electric impulses. What they don´t know is how nerve cells in the brain work together to encode information and then store and recall it. Ole Paulsen, a physiologist from the University of Oxford talks about his latest findings that show memories are linked to interconnected nerve networks. Emissions from volcanoes Tamsin Mather, a research fellow from Oxford, has been travelling around the world in search of volcanos. She´s trying to understand how chemicals expelled during an eruption interact with the atmosphere and the environment. Across the Caribbean to the UK's only acitve volcano Montserrat is another young, female volcanologist Dr Marie Edmonds. She often finds herself standing in the middle of volcanic gas plumes measuring the composition of Montserrat´s expulsions. Cambridge University - new centre for science and policy in its 800th year Cambridge University was founded in 1209. To celebrate the great institution's 800th birthday The Science Show visits Churchill College, home of the new Centre for Science and Policy which contains within its walls some of Winston Churchill´s original policy papers from World War 2.

[ Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +1000 ]

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